Why Was There A Need To Draw Lines That Create Voting Districts?
Gerrymandering Research Paper
Why was there a need to draw lines that create voting districts? The constitution set up the initial way each state would be represented and gave representatives (House of Representatives) that were determined according to population and guaranteed the number of representatives (Senate) that each state would have. The lines were needed to give equal representation for all the districts. Gerrymandering is the illegal practice of redrawing the congressional district lines in such a way as to favor one political party over another. In 1812, then Governor Eldridge Gerry signed a bill that redistricted Massachusetts. The map resembled the shape of a salamander and “the term ‘gerry-mander’ was later coined in 1812 to mock an oddly shaped district encompassing northern parts of Essex County, Massachusetts” (Wang …show more content…
Gerrymandering allows for a particular party to get bills passed easily by having a majority of their party in The House of Representatives and Senate. With this increase they will have enough votes to make a bill veto proof. Political and racial gerrymandering are unconstitutional and illegal. As stated in, The voting rights act of 1965 “prohibits spreading minorities across districts”The court’s solution required that states create majority-minority districts — districts in which the majority of the voting-age population belonged to a single minority. With voting that occurred largely along racial lines, these districts allowed minority voters to elect their candidates of choice. But a fascinating development occurred in the years since. These districts, rather than giving African Americans more political power, might have actually started to deprive them of it. Majority-minority districts, by concentrating the minority vote in certain districts, have the unintended consequence of diluting their influence
Why was there a need to draw lines that create voting districts? The constitution set up the initial way each state would be represented and gave representatives (House of Representatives) that were determined according to population and guaranteed the number of representatives (Senate) that each state would have. The lines were needed to give equal representation for all the districts. Gerrymandering is the illegal practice of redrawing the congressional district lines in such a way as to favor one political party over another. In 1812, then Governor Eldridge Gerry signed a bill that redistricted Massachusetts. The map resembled the shape of a salamander and “the term ‘gerry-mander’ was later coined in 1812 to mock an oddly shaped district encompassing northern parts of Essex County, Massachusetts” (Wang …show more content…
Gerrymandering allows for a particular party to get bills passed easily by having a majority of their party in The House of Representatives and Senate. With this increase they will have enough votes to make a bill veto proof. Political and racial gerrymandering are unconstitutional and illegal. As stated in, The voting rights act of 1965 “prohibits spreading minorities across districts”The court’s solution required that states create majority-minority districts — districts in which the majority of the voting-age population belonged to a single minority. With voting that occurred largely along racial lines, these districts allowed minority voters to elect their candidates of choice. But a fascinating development occurred in the years since. These districts, rather than giving African Americans more political power, might have actually started to deprive them of it. Majority-minority districts, by concentrating the minority vote in certain districts, have the unintended consequence of diluting their influence